36 THE MUCOUS MEMBRANE ELEVATION. 



In the vicinity of the capillaries and larger blood vessels, which 

 are enormously dilated and in some places ruptured, we find many 

 red blood corpuscles lying between the decidual cells. 



In this way the somewhat exaggerated histologic picture of 

 hyperemia and actual suffusion of the mucous membrane (com- 

 pare Fig. 25. Section 142) is formed, not unlike that described 

 as occurring during menstruation, by the author 1 , later by.Geb- 

 hard 2 , and recently by Sellheim. 3 



Between the blood vessels and glands the decidual tissue is 

 distributed partly in fine and coarse bands, partly in form of an 

 outstretched network and there is as yet no distinction possible 

 between a decidua compacta and decidua spongiosa, since we 

 find thick compact layers and broad bands of decidual tissue in 

 the superficial as well as the deeper layers of the mucosa. 



Noteworthy is the wealth of glands and their course. In the 

 sections on either side of the ovum (Sections 1 to 30 and 120 

 to 160) some of the glands can be followed in their entire length 

 up to their entrance into the uterine cavity (Fig. 3, Section 4. 

 Fig 25, Section 142). At the opening and in the middle they 

 are often greatly dilated. Here their walls are folded, forming 

 larger and smaller waves which like papillae protrude into glan- 

 dular lumen and suggest the picture of a beginning adenoma 

 In the deeper portions the glands are lined with a perfectly pre- 

 served cylindrical epithelium which however becomes more dis- 

 tinctly cuboidal the closer the glands approach the base of the 

 peripheral wall of the ovular chamber. 



Since the latter is made up of blood spaces, as will be dem- 

 onstrated later, the surrounding decidual tissue also is 'infiltrated 

 with blood, as can be seen in Fig. 25, Section 142 (Plate XV bl.). 



As a result of this mucosa hemorrhage the glands in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the ovum also are filled with red blood cells and 

 are in a state of partial dissolution exactly like during menstrua- 

 tion.* The epithelium loosens from the glandular walls and 

 disappears among the blood corpuscles. The delicate connec- 

 tive tissue of the gland wall becomes loosened -and is dissolved; 

 the further the ovular envelope moves toward the periphery, the 

 more the glands become displaced. Their outer walls are flat- 

 tened, their inner walls dissolved. Certain sections (37 to 105) 

 show this process very plainly. It is best observed by following 

 the three longest. The one in shape of an arch, reaches the 

 ovum and partly encircles it, the second passes to the right, the 



1 Leopold, Studien ueber die L T terus Schleimhaut (Archiv. f. Gynaek Bd. XI). 



2 Gebhard. Pathol. der Weibl. Geschlechtsorgane. 



3. Sellheim-Nagel. Handbuch der Phyiol. des Menschen, II 1, pages 96 to 98. Figs. 

 38-41. 



4. Nagel. 1. o. Fig. 41. 



